CEO Reflections | Reimagining Volunteering for 2021 and Beyond

At long last, our Volunteer West team had a chance to have a team picnic and dinner this December.

Like the rest of Melbourne, and Victoria for that matter, we are thrilled to be out and about. Meeting up over coffees and picnics, picking up after our last Zoom call. 

Volunteer West has been fortunate to be infused with the energy of a growing number of volunteers, staff and Board members, that kept us connected, productive, and sane. We are grateful to come through 2020 stronger with the support of our collaborators and colleagues across our region, Victoria and Australia. 

We are very much looking forward to 2021.

Our Reimagining Volunteering launch event  marks our ambition and vision for the West and volunteering.  With an injection of funds we garnered from our collaborators and supporters, 2021 will see us progressively build up pillars for a strong regional volunteering infrastructure that grows community participation and social cohesion.  

We do this guided by our collective impact model. By ‘our’, we mean to include Volunteer West and our collaborators from community and government. 

Volunteer West’s Collective Impact Model

Our collective impact model is centred on people and the community.

The volunteering journey empowers people to bring about impacts for themselves and their community: personal wellbeing, confidence in the volunteering journey, employment pathways.

We move forward with a systems-thinking approach. With people and community we can create and enable enduring systemic changes: greater social cohesion, active citizenry and economic contribution.  

Together, the Triple C of how we do our work, Convening, Championing and Collaborating we aim to bring volunteering closer to people’s front door.  

2020 is a year many of us are ready to close the door on. I hope 2021 brings rest and renewal for you.